The Tearsheet term sheet: The definitive guide to fintech jargon

Financial technology need not be an insider's game -- we’ll unpack the terms that are creeping into our daily financial lives.

We'll tell you what everything really means.

Tearsheet Editors | March 24, 2017

Financial technology is so riddled with jargon it’s no wonder companies can’t explain what they do or how they’re actually solving the problem they’re trying to solve. And potential customers and buyers of the products and services this industry is building end up feeling a little excluded from this world – kind of like the old finance industry they’re working so hard to make more accessible to the masses.

So, we’ve started this Tearsheet term sheet in an attempt to break up the fintech echo chamber. Let us know more ideas by tweeting at us @Tearsheetco.

agile: fastaccelerators: finishing school for startupsAI: “big data,” 2017 versionAPI: official permission to use someone else’s workbeta: We have no idea what we’re doingbig data: so 2012biometrics: fingerprintsbitcoin: you’re kiddingblockchain: an Excel sheet chatbot: do I sound human yet?conversationalbanking: you’re talking to somethingconsumers: peoplecorporate VCs: attention startups: take our money, let us buy you latercryptocurrency: digital currency for anarchists chief culture officer: chief ping-pong table installerDLT: blockchain tech built with banker specsdigital ambassadors: bank tellersdigital wallet: your wallet on a phone, sans cash and IDdisruptors: startups with big egosfail-fast-fail-often: failfintech: finance todayfrictionless: easygame changing: hoping you forgot the last time we did thisguests: peopleincubator: boarding school for disruptorsincumbents: grownup peopleinnovation lab: adult playground innovative: (see: game changing)insurtech: a bot will soon tell you your medical visit is not coveredmachine learning: the machine that knows how to react when you yell at itmarketplace lending: you’re lending to or borrowing from a stranger through a websitenative: you don’t need Safari or Chrome to use itomnichannel: every channelopen banking: banks need to outsource creativity, via APIsPFM (personal finance management): balancing your checkbookpivot: our first idea didn’t really pan outpost-app world: apps will dieproof-of-concept: we’re waiting for the money to make this a thingremittance: money that costs money to send home overseasrelationship building: when banks want to stalk yourevolutionary: hypedrobo-advisers: you’ll end up talking to humans scale: growsolution: experimentsprints: not your average never-ending large-scale tech overhaulsurprise and delight: it’s kind of new and customers probably won’t hate ittest-and-learn: playtime for focus-groupsthroughput: when input and output aren’t long-enough wordsubiquitous: everywhereunicorn: those special startups in theThree Comma Clubusers: people who downloaded our app onceVC: mom and dadVenmo: how you stalk your exWatson: scary smart supercomputerXaaS (anything as a service): using the Internet